Monday, November 28, 2005

Performance anxiety

Tomorrow I'm speaking at a conference. It was supposed to be one of those big conferences with the giant lecture room and the podium and the big screen powerpoint and all.

Friday, I spoke to the conference organisers and found out that there are only seventeen delegates. Great, me and my copresenter D prepared a speech for 100. D couldn't quite believe it and asked if maybe it was 70. Well, I was pretty sure I heard her right, but I phoned back to check today - and it wasn't 17 - no it's eighteen. One more person signed up.

Ok. It's tempting not to give my all, but these people paid nearly 400 pounds (about 700 bucks) to hear us speak- us and the other people on the panel.

And frankly I want them to walk away saying hey, this conference sucked but Vol Abroad was good. I learned something.

So even though it's only 18 people, I'm still nervous, and I'm still going to be up late prepping for something lively and informative for a small group.
-
________________________________________________________________________

6 comments:

St. Caffeine said...

Well of course you're going to open with a joke, aren't you?

Man walks into a bar with a duck under his arm ... Works every time.

Actually the best version of the "man walks into a bar" joke I've heard was from a 3rd grader:

Two men walk into a bar. The third one ducks.

Anonymous said...

Or...

Two Irishmen walk out of a bar...

Think about it. It could happen.

Anonymous said...

I dont know where to begin except that in all honesty, I am an emotional wreck. Once again. Today right now, right here, I am just letting it out and Ill figure it out later.
I started boozing at the age of 14 when I was in high school. It started when I met my friend (?) Tom (He had a pretty sheltered life as a mayor’s son). It was Tom who used to sponsor all the expenses. But, gradually I was addicted to alcohol and I was suffering from acute depression. I was alone and there was no one who could look after me.
We couldn’t wait to experience all life had to offer. We got heavily involved in drug and alcohol abuse. Infact, I used to sleep for 16 hrs a day after taking alprazolam overdose.
It was quite difficult to get alprazolam; we used fake prescriptions to obtain the drugs. And finally, I spent 6 months behind the bars taking rehabs.
And believe me, I am still addicted… BTW, I found a great site explaining the effects of anti-anxiety drugs in general and alprazolam (Xanax) in particular – http://www.alprazolam.cc.
Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead.
Andy

St. Caffeine said...

Okay, Vol, you win the weirdest comment spam contest!

Vol Abroad said...

Yep, that one is so weird, I'm going to leave that up.

Anonymous said...

Maybe when he comes down from whatever he's on he'll grace us with a translation.